Despite governor's spin; a bad jobs report

The governor's office put a heck of a spin on Thursday's report from the Connecticut Department of Labor which found that the unemployement rate in the state jumped from 7.8 percent to 8.1 percent in June. According to the labor department, decent growth in the private sector was offset by job losses in the public sector and at the state's tribal casinos.

But if there was an award for finding a silver lining in a bad jobs report, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy would be the gold medal winner. You have to read the release very closely to find an acknowledgement that unemployment went up. It's buried near the bottom (check my underline).

The release:

GOV. MALLOY STATEMENT ON JUNE JOBS REPORT

(HARTFORD, CT) – Governor Dannel P. Malloy issued the following statement regarding today's release of the Connecticut Department of Labor's monthly "Labor Situation" report for June 2012, which indicates that the state's unemployment rate was 8.1 percent, compared to the national rate of 8.2 percent, and 5,000 private sector jobs were created during the month.

"The addition of 5,000 private sector jobs this month brings the total number of jobs created since January of last year to more than 22,000. Our unemployment rate is down 13% over the same time period. And all of this happened while we've been working hard to streamline state government, which now has nearly 3,000 fewer employees.

"Let's put this month's job figure into context. It was announced last month that 102,000 private sector jobs were created nationally. That means with 5,000 private sector jobs created here in Connecticut, our state is responsible for 5% of the country's job growth in the last month even though we only account for about 1% of the country's population.

"We clearly have a long way to go, but let me be clear – job creation continues to be my top priority.

"Part of the reason for the increase announced today is that more people are looking for work, which in and of itself is a good thing. It means people are increasingly confident that there are good jobs available. And there is reason to be confident. With companies like Jackson Laboratories, Alexion and Sustainable Building Systems planning to relocate or expand their operations, we have positioned our state for future job growth."

Andy Condon, director of the state labor agency's Office of Research, had a more sobering assessment of what the numbers mean: "Unfortunately, the jump in our unemployment rate indicates we are not growing jobs fast enough to satisfy the need in our economy."